Sunday, January 8, 2012

Riding High Tide

I think I read it in someone else's blog somewhere, but the writer made a point that the practice of yoga is not just the 60-90 minutes spent in the room with the asanas. Your yoga practice is a lifelong, day to day commitment. And, like the 60-90 minute practice, your practice has its heights and its falls.

I've come out of a valley for a bit, and I'm riding high. Classes have felt great. My body feels good. I'm making progress. For a while, I was basically dying every class without fail, so it's sort of exciting to reach a high point after that.

I wonder if this is something I'm experiencing more drastically as a newbie or if it continues on. This shift has felt super extreme, from puddle on the floor of anger and tears to feeling like I could conquer anything. Even the latter, though, has days and moments that feel impossible. I'm curious to keep exploring and see if one day, it becomes a more gentle tide instead of tide pool to tidal wave every couple of months.

Oh! And now I have a picture. Of me. Doing something. My sister and I did a big yoga photo shoot after I took class yesterday. Maybe it was my ego feeling needy, but I'll always defend it as curiosity (and Bridget needed practice with her camera!). Can't lie, it made me proud of myself. I never thought of myself as particularly bendy. And yeah, I can't do this yet:

And maybe I never will, but everyone's gotta start somewhere.

Gotta wonder if that's what spoils Bikram yogis. We keep coming back because if you keep doing the same 26 poses long enough, they will look better over time. Not that any of us come to yoga to look good, how dare me to even say so....but yeah, it's nice to see progress.